Ereagan

Honestly, I think every profession is a little like that.  I went to grad school to be a school counselor but there is only so much you can learn in classes and internships.  I have learned more since getting my counseling job through hands on experience than I would've ever learned in a class.  I'm would think that lawyers, teachers, and other professionals are the same way.  Now having said that, I definitely shouldn't have been charging and taking clients when I first started photography years ago.  I was one of "those" and am embarrassed by my early work.  I have come quite a ways though and have come to realize that the more I learn, the more I realize how little I truly know.  I honestly don't think photographers realize how bad they are until they improve and know better.  I don't think the industry is ruined because of the photographers that are trying to learn; I think the real issue are the photographers that produce crap work and think that it's AMAZING and never try to get better.  Thanks for your help!  =)    

My issue with jumping into that class right now is that I feel like I need to start with raw and work through them in "order"...oh and I needed to order this print like yesterday.  -said by every photographer everywhere I'm sure.  lol

I started over with this image so this image is not edited the exact same way as the one I originally sent her that printed "crimped" so MAYBE it was my fault??  

It was most definitely a crappy one...costco.  I did not prepare as 4x6.  She just had the 11x15 cropped file on a flash drive.  I did export out of LR and not PS which I now know is a no no.  You told me how to prepare the file for 30x40 print in another thread...What would be the best way to prepare a file like this for a flash drive so that this crap won't happen again?  Do I just do the same thing but instead of cropping to 30x40, I crop with 11x15 dimensions and 300 PPI in PS?  (If it matters, I allow clients to print at any size.  I recommend Mpix but they don't listen...ever.)

Honestly, I don't really see it much at 100% but the client got a 4x6 printed and it was definitely crimpy looking.  Trying to make sure it's fixed before I fork out the money for her 30x40.

The girl with the braces' hair looks crimped.  It was perfectly straight in real life so I am assuming it is moire.  I've tried just about every tutorial I can find and nothing seems to work.  How can I fix it in PS or LR?  Ignore the bra showing and the horrid tan lines...the pic I'm attaching is SOOC.  I know how to fix those things but that "crimped" hair is driving me bonkers.  It will be printed 30x40 (if that even makes a difference).  Thank you thank you thank you!  

Ok, this just confirms that I make dumb mistakes when I just wing it and don't really know what I'm doing.  Need to get into some of your classes asap!  Thanks again!  I feel MUCH better about this print.

5 minutes ago, Damien Symonds said:

In most cases, and certainly for this photo, 16-bit is overkill.  8-bit is fine.

Is there a benefit to changing it to 8-bit or downside to keeping it 16?  I know this photo doesn't require 16 bit but what scenario would I need 16 bit?  (just for future reference so I don't screw up)

8 minutes ago, Damien Symonds said:

NO.  No exporting.  Use plain old "File>Save As".  Jpeg, Quality 7 (on the 0-12 slider)

Gotta know because if I understand the reason then I will be more likely to remember in the future...why shouldn't you export?  When I click "save as" in PS it doesn't give me a jpeg slider?  It just lets me type a name, choose the format, and click if I want to embed the color profile.    

I just read all of that and it is super helpful, but this is the first session that I have used LR and PS to edit so I want to make sure I am understanding.  (Before I only used LR...I know I know you don't have to tell me how stupid that is. )   I am going to start from scratch with the raw image again because I cropped in LR prior to editing in PS.  Sooooo...let's see if I've got this right:

1-Edit raw image in LR (no cropping)

2-Open in PS using these LR external export settings.  (see pic)  Are these settings right?

3-Edit in PS

4-Crop with dimension 30x40" and 300PPI  (Please see pic to check if I'm doing this right.) 

5-Flatten image

6-Export as jpeg using these PS settings (see two PS pics)

7-Import in ROES and order 30x40

Feeling really lost and nervous that one wrong setting will screw up this print.

I am attempting to order a 30x40 print for a client through Millers lab. The raw image is 28.2 MB and I am cropping just enough for the 30x40 ratio. However, when I try to order the print through ROES, I get an error that says the image is below our minimum image size recommendations for the 30x40" print size. I thought I was saving it as a high-res JPEG but I must be doing something wrong.  I played around with my export settings in Lightroom and changed the dimensions to 12000x9000 with 300PPI and it no longer gives me the error in ROES but I feel like that may be just having lightroom add pixels which could mess up the quality. (I don't typically enter in a width and height in LR export.) Scared to fork out the $100 for the print without knowing I'm exporting properly. Thank you for your help!  FYI: I used LR and PS to edit the image.